So while transferring from the primary to the bottling bucket I forgot to close the spout on the bottling bucket so I lost almost a gallon of beer to the floor. Not fun but not the end of the world. Cleaned up pretty easy with a big towel… that I put in the laundry and forgot about, encouraging the growth of lots and lots of mold. It washed out so it’s all ok but Jackie will make fun of me for the rest of time.

After the spill it all went into bottles without incident and was given this label:

Not much to report, the brew went pretty smoothly. Scott and Sarah K came over to lend a hand. Ended up taking a while to clean the kitchen so we didn’t start the brew until almost 1AM. They had to go not long after the grains finished steeping so I ended up maintaining the boil alone for most of it. After the brew was over I woke up Jackie to hold the the brew pot in the bathtub while I finished preparing the fermenting bucket.

Note: Buy a good manual can opener. The cheep one from 7-11 was worse than the electric that I ended up using again.

1.072 original measured gravity at 75F + .0015 to compinsate temp = original gravity of 1.0735

The Brew:

Beginning my brew day I fit together all the important parts; the spigot went into the bucket and the airlock into the lid. Both were a very tight fit, the airlock was actually too tight… I accidentally tore the rubber grommet. So now, after a quick trip to the hardware store, I have a grommet that fits the airlock very well but the hole in the lid is too small. Using a small sharp knife (I don’t own a drill) I made the lid hole large enough for the new grommet.

The two cans of malt extract are in my largest (still too small) mixing bowl with hot water flowing over them so that when the time comes the malt should flow out of the can easily.

Now a break to eat so I can think better and not rush through the brew… ahhhh that was tasty.

Note: buy a manual can opener, malt extract is a bitch with an electric… the can is too big and heavy!

Grains steeped at the lower end of the recomended temp almost exactly 160 F

My stove is small it’s taking a very very long time to get from 160 to a boil (bottle for size reference)

Wort finally boiling, hops in, timer set

I’m having difficulty maintaining a boil with the lid off , now using the lid partially on so I can watch for foam build up and retain heat at the same time.

Timer went off. Pulled off the lid, put in the finishing hops and spice pack. Smells a little like apple pie after about 2 minutes. The aroma is mostly (but not entirely) taken over by the hop aroma.

Jackie very graciously filled the bath tub with cold water in preparation for the end of the boil.

The cinnamon is forcing its way back into the aroma of the steam, 3ish minutes left on the boil.

Got the wort in the fermenter, sealed it up, was about to water the air lock and then realized… beer needs yeast. I popped the bucket back open, took a hydrometer reading (alomost forgot that too), scooped a little out with my sterilized glass and sprinkled on the yeast.

1.070 initial gravity right on target with the low end on the printed recipe.

The wort is a bit, well, disgusting. It smells a bit like mild mollases and tastes like a dirty pinecone. It’s dark brown and (only 5 minutes after going into the fermenter) my little sample has a lot of sediment. I think it’s mostly pelletized hop residue and cinnamon.

I hope the fermentation does good things for this beer, like mellowing the hop aroma and smothing out all the maltyness. I’ll post about more stuff as it happens, at the very least in 2ish weeks when bottling day comes around. See you then.